my male betta cant hardly breathe

Question
hello my question is about my male betta
its almost 1 year since bought him on the petstore
i keep in 1 gallon glass bowl by him self
i clean his water once a week & i feed in just a little bit once in the morning & once in the afternoon
he was fine swiming fast he's very active but for 2 days now he's hardly swiming he wants to be on the top i see he has trouble breathing. i dont know what to do i am very cause just a week ago my goldfish died i dont want my betta to die what can i do?

Answer
Hi Carolina,

Unfortunately a 'bowl' is no place for live aquaria.  It just cannot support the bioload that a living creature produces.  There are 2 possibilites here, one being that the ammonia has continued to back up in the bowl causing permanent lung damage, this is classic when you do not have filtration, and/or two, it could be parasites in the gills caused from the poor water quality from no filtration and no heater.

Bettas are tropical fish.  They do require a heater to have a consistent 78 f temp.  The problem with keeping a tank in a 'warmer spot' in the house is the that the temp is not consistent.  Cooler days it plunges and at ususally always plummets at night.  This would not be normal in the betta's natural habitat and will cause a betta to get stressed, ill and even die.

Bettas, like all other aquaria creatures, need filtration.  Who wants to swim aorund in their own filth?  Bowl water would need to be changed daily to keep pollutants out and that alone will stress out a fish.  Disturbing their habitat and large water changes cause stress from sudden temp, GH, KH and pH changes.  This too can cause stress, illness and even death.  However, if the water isn't changed often enough ammonia, nitrites and nitrates acculmulate and this too causes the same stress, illness and death.  That's why heated, filtered tanks are best!

Your betta needs a minimum of a 5 gallon, heated, filtered tank asap.  I would recommend going to Walmart asap and getting their 5 gallon kit that contains an acrylic tank and built in filtration.  It's inexpensive at $29 and a small heater will cost a few bucks more.  You will need to get trsting strips and make sure you always have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5-20 ppm nitrates.  You will need to clean the gravel with your syphon hose and change out 25% of the water weekly in the 5 gallon tank.  Make sure that you are conditioning any tap water with conditioner, I like Seachem's Prime the best.  

Now, the new tank will undergo cycling, as all new set up tanks do.  It's recommended that you cycle without the fish present as this process kills fish, but you don't have a choice since you already have the fish.  Use any gravel, plants and water from the bowl into the new tank.  Add new gravel, new plants and fresh water (MAKE SURE YOU CONDITION THE NEW WATER BEFORE YOU ADD IT TO THE TANK OR IT WILL KILL ANY GOOD BACTERIA YOU HAVE TRANSFERRED).  You will need to test the new tank water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates every few days for the next couple of months.  You never, ever want any ammonia present, no nitrites and only 5-20 ppm nitrates.  If any of these are off it will sicken your betta and you will need to do daily 25% water changes, conditioning the new water, until the levels are normal.

If you have the empty tank still running from the passed on goldfish, and since goldfish require 20 gallons for one and 10 gallons for each additional, you can heat that tank and put the betta in there temporarily until you get the smaller tank if you don't want to keep the betta in a 20 gallon all alone.  Make sure you test the water first and that you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5-20 ppm nitrates so that it's safe to place him in there.

Does he have any other symptoms over than hanging out at the top.  Likely, it's simply the environment and build up of toxins in the water that's causing the off behavior.  If he develops other symptoms or the bigger tank doesn't seem to help in a few days test the water and let me know.

Good luck : ) April M.